According to The Sun, Luke Hanoman bit the side of his fingernail and began experiencing flu-like symptoms.

“I had cold sweats, I was shaking, and then going hot,” he stated. “And then my finger started swelling up and had this unbearable throbbing… I started going really weird and couldn’t focus.”

He tried to sleep off the illness but was later rushed to the hospital. As it turns out, he had contracted sepsis. Sepsis is a complication from an infection that, when left untreated, can cause organs to fair. Doctors told Hanoman he was lucky to be alive.“I used to bite my nails all the time. I was a nervous thing,” he explained. “And one day I bit the skin down the side of my nail. It hurt a bit but I didn’t think anything of it.”

About 250,000 Americans die from sepsis every year, according to the CDC. Though it’s pretty unlikely that you would contract it from some simple nail biting, the story definitely serves as a cautionary tale. So, if you have a friend who has a terrible nail biting habit, you might want to encourage them to cut it out, lest something similar happens to them.